Destruction of Lomboko

The Destruction of Lomboko occurred in 1849 when the British Royal Navy and its Royal Marines assaulted the infamous slave fortress of Lomboko in Sierra Leone. The fortress, located at the mouth of the Gallinas River, was run by Spanish slave merchants, who, by 1839, were illegally exporting 2,000 slaves a year. Due to the illegality of the Atlantic slave trade, the Royal Navy intercepted several slave ships, and, after the case of United States v. The Amistad, the Royal Navy made it a priority to destroy the Lomboko fortress, from which the Amistad captives had departed for Cuba. Captain Peter Fitzgerald and a squadron of Royal Navy ships landed Royal Marines near the fortress, and the Marines overwhelmed the slavers and liberated several captive slaves from the fortress' infamous dungeons. After the slaves were liberated and the fort was captured, Captain Fitzgerald had the fort bombarded to ruins, preventing slave traders from making use of it ever again.